Industry News
League tables 'no use to parents'
Posted on 23rd January 2008
Government performance tables for schools are unhelpful and misleading, the headteacher of a leading independent school has claimed.
The most recent GCSE league tables saw some of the country's best known independent schools languishing at the bottom because the Department for Children, Schools and Families does not recognise the IGCSE qualification.
In a letter to the Guardian, Simon Davies of Eastbourne College insisted the IGCSEs taught by many private schools are widely regarded as being more challenging than equivalent GCSE courses and their omission from performance data further undermined the validity of league tables.
This means an already flawed system is now of no use to parents, he continued.
"Education is about having fun, developing skills and talents, making friends and, of course, academic achievements. These qualities cannot be measured in league tables," Mr Davies concluded.
Teaching unions have regularly spoken out against the use of league tables in measuring the performance of schools in recent years and their stance was recently backed by the Independent Schools Council which called for the tables to be scrapped.